


The Chosen and the Champion (Switch gang tribute)

by Illegible_Handwriting



Category: Linked Universe - Fandom, The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
Genre: 100 kudos!, A bit more swearing, AHAHAHAHAHAHA you are all MINE now, But Not Much, Constructive Criticism Welcome, Crack, Earrings, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff, Gen, Gremlin Sky, I ENDED A CHAPTER WITHOUT THEM HUGGING IT OUT, I ain't done with modern AU, I ain't tagging Lanayru but we all know what's happening, I changed the title, I don't know, I feel the need to tag sailor boy for some reason, I figured out why Sky is so nice in LU, I forgot that tag oops, I just kept using hugs as the end, I just realized, I like having Sky not like travelling with the others, I never promised you fluff, I'll just leave that here, I'm so mean to him, IM GETTING BETTER, It is now, Legend would totally kill that kid, Linked Universe (Legend of Zelda), More tags to be added, Oh look at that, Poor Sky, Right?, Shield surfing, Sky (Linked Universe)-centric, Sky cannot warp in his game, Sky is a bad influence, Sky was taught how to use the Groosenator fight me on this, Sky would usually just be blown up in Wild's cannons, Sky's wallet is in trouble, So much guilt, THIS IS A STEPPING STONE, Tasha is cool and maybe Irish, The boys are idiots, The others are in there too but it's supposed to be for those two, This is a lot of Tags, Time is gonna kill 'em, Twi gets a cameo, WAAAAIT, What's a prompt, Why can't I write endings, Wild (Linked Universe)-centric, Wild is just excited to have a friend that's as crazy as he is, always choose the earrings, b/c it's his fault they are who that are, because I'm special that way, because Time - Freeform, but I feel like I'm missing something, but I say otherwise, but having no other choice so he bears it alone, but just look at him, but just one, but not really, can't think of what else to tag, every time, flame breaker armour or flimsy red earrings?, he deserves it, he literally cannot say no to the others, he's a redead, is all these tags necessary?, it's referenced twice, no beta we die like men, not yet, nothing wrong with hugs but seriously, oh dear I nearly wrote a bit of angst there, old man Wild, oof, ooh good earrings, please read the warnings, probably just one more chapter, same stuff don't worry guys, should I tag the others?, so I am taking advantage of a minor detail, so buckle up, so i did, so that's referenced, special fancy earrings, sry people w/ redead trauma, thank you all!, that counts, that shouldn't happen, the answer is GUILT, the author can't cook and it shows, there is one swear word, wait, was that relevant?, when he's one of the more angry Links, why does autocorrect keep changing "Twi" to "Two", woohoo, yes - Freeform, yes it's a little bit of a running gag in this chapter, yes they are, you cannot convince me otherwise
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-21
Updated: 2021-03-15
Packaged: 2021-03-18 09:20:59
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 13,782
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29607279
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Illegible_Handwriting/pseuds/Illegible_Handwriting
Summary: A series of (probably) one-shots focusing on Sky and Wild, because of Skyward Sword HD.Updates whenever.Based off of a list of words that happen to tie Skyward Sword and Breath of the Wild together. (You'll see what I mean).
Relationships: Four & Hyrule & Legend & Sky & Time & Twilight & Warriors & Wild & Wind (Linked Universe), Sky & Wild (Linked Universe)
Comments: 65
Kudos: 146





	1. Fruitcake

**Author's Note:**

> This is probably going to be, write it, read it over, like, once, and post it if I like it, cuz I'm really bad at proofreading. 
> 
> Hope you enjoy the first and the last heroes fluff (I think mostly fluff? We'll see where this goes).

It had been a stressful day, complete with five monster attacks, and by the time camp was set up, everyone was just about ready to flop down on the ground and go unconscious until morning. 

Sky couldn't blame them - he wanted to as well. 

But when he noticed Wild start to set up his cooking pot, a slight grin on his face, the Chosen Hero's curiosity peaked. 

"Hey, Wild," he said nonchalantly, strolling leisurely towards the cook. "Whatcha making?"

The blond teen startled for a minute, then relaxed. "Hey Sky, I was just getting started on dinner. I thought we could all use a fresh meal." He paused for a moment. "Umm...do you want something?"

"Oh!" Sky realized he had been simply standing there aimlessly. "Oh, yeah, do you want help? I'm not a horrible cook, and…" he trailed off lamely, but Wild's face brightened. 

"Yes please! I was gonna make some pumpkin soup, do you know how to do that?"

Sky grinned at his friend. "It turns out I know a great recipe for pumpkin soup. I'll get started right away." 

Soon, the two heroes were working side-by-side, with Sky chopping vegetables and stirring broth and Wild hiding in his shadow, inconspicuously slicing up a few ingredients. Every now and then, Sky shot a glance at the cook and his work, and realization slowly snuck into his mind. 

He began chatting amiably, talking about anything that came to mind as his hands worked. He settled into a soothing rhythm, but occasionally lowered his voice to a whisper, offering small suggestions to Wild. 

"Easy on the flour." "Try chopping up the fruits into really small bits, they won't sink to the bottom." "Use a little bit of brown sugar, it'll taste fuller." 

Wild occasionally looked at him strangely, but took most, if not all of his suggestions. 

Wild did this with Sky as well, glancing over and offering quiet suggestions. Sky simply shrugged and followed the boy's instructions to a tee, knowing just how well Wild could cook.

As the sun went down, Sky winked at Wild, and ladling the soup into nine bowls, he walked around, passing it out and finally settling down with his own bowl. 

"You made this, Sky?" Twilight asked, slurping the soup off his spoon. When the Chosen Hero nodded, he grinned. "This is really good!" 

The others nodded and agreed, if a little tiredly. Sky himself could barely bring the spoonfuls to his lips, instead opting to lift the bowl and drink it in a few gulps. 

Warrior blinked at him. "Someone's hungry."

Sky shrugged, wiping his mouth with the back of his sleeve. "I've had a lot of practice." 

Wild nudged his side. "Where's you get the recipe?"

"There's a soup shop in my world, the Lumpy Pumpkin," Sky explained, stifling a yawn and rubbing at his stuff shoulders. "I could give it to you if you want. I broke their chandelier once and had to work it off. That's how I know it." 

Wild gasped dramatically. "You? Sky? Broke a chandelier? It's simply unfathomable."

"What's unfathomable is what you can do with a cooking pot," Sky shot back, suddenly hit with a stroke of inspiration. "Don't you need to do something?"

Wild's eyes widened and he bit his lip. "Yeah. Can you...come help me?" 

Sky nodded and stood up, following the champion to the fire and ignoring the strange looks he got. 

Once the two men had hunched over beside the pot, Sky whispered, "It's really nice of you, making that for them." 

"I hope it'll work," Wild said fervently. "Your suggestions...I've never used that before. I don't know how it'll turn out." 

"It'll be fine," Sky promised. Wild hummed in speculation but didn't answer. 

"What're you guys doing over there?" Legend called from behind them. "You're not very subtle!" 

Wild caught Sky's eye and, grinning broadly, turned around, holding the fruitcake carefully in his hands. 

"I thought that after today, you guys might like a treat," the cook said, glancing around at the tired, astonished faces. "This is my Zelda's favorite recipe, with a few tweaks." 

No one moved for a few seconds. Then Time asked, "You made this for us?" 

Wild nodded. "With help from Sky." 

"Wow," Wind breathed. 

Suddenly, noise erupted from the group. Amidst the cheers, Wild smiled at Sky. "Grab the knife and plates, will you?" 

Sky hurried to do his bidding, and within minutes, the nine heroes were feasting on the delicious fruitcake. 

Sky settled down next to Wild, who was poking the cake with his fork. 

"It'll taste okay," he said, correctly interpreting Wild's nervous expression. "I may not be the best cook, but I know how to make my girlfriend's favorite treat." 

Wild raised his eyebrows, but took a bite. His eyes narrowed. 

"Your Zelda likes fruitcake?" Sky nodded. "I can see why." 

Sky gulped down the last bit of sweetness from his plate as Wild snarfed it down hungrily, before sitting back with a sigh. "I'm keeping that recipe." 

"Good."


	2. Amber

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sky's an amateur rock collector. Wild finds out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I...actually kinda like this one. If you read my first (and only other) fic, As twilight fell, you might know this, but please keep in mind that I'm trying to get better at writing! So constructive criticism is appreciated! 
> 
> Thanks to @linkeduniverseprompts on tumblr for this one!

Once, it was in Four's Hyrule. 

The nine Links had simply been walking along when Sky had spotted something in the grass. A glint of orangey gold was hidden among the green stalks, and he suddenly had the all-too-familiar urge to run back and pick it up. 

Who was he to resist?

He was at the back of the group again, as he normally was, and it wasn't hard to wait for the other heroes to look away from him, before he sprinted back to the grass and grabbed the small amber relic, only about the size of his hand. It wasn't the largest he had ever picked up, since amber relics generally varied in size, but it was certainly a good size, so Sky pocketed it and went on. 

Another time was in Hyrule's world. 

The teen had warned them that there wasn't much of anything in his Hyrule, but Sky didn't see it. He could quite obviously see the grass and the dirt, the path and the trees and the occasional rocks in the fields. 

And the relics, of course. 

He had found two more in the days following their switch into Hyrule's world, two that had been completely overlooked by the others. Perhaps it was the lighting. Perhaps Sky simply had better vision than the others, being up in the clouds for most of his life and used to the sun beating down on his eyes. 

Perhaps the others had noticed them, and they really were worthless. 

Nevertheless, Sky felt a small new thrill at finding each and every one of them, even if the smooth amber grew dirtier and a little bit less high quality the farther away from his world he found them. 

Sky liked to put one in his pocket occasionally, shoving his hands in his pockets and tracing the soft, comforting curves of the stones that had been one of the constants during his adventure. It calmed him, allowing him to actually listen to everything around him without getting too much of a headache. 

He didn't particularly enjoy thinking about the substance itself, however. Amber relics seemed different somehow, different from the rock that had imprisoned his Zelda for thousands of years until he woke her up. 

Yeah, he didn't really like to think about that.

Sky wasn't sure how many amber relics he had. He knew he had about ninety before he finished his adventure, and the ones that he had picked up during this adventure made that...hmm. He wasn't sure, but he should probably count them. 

A few days after he found the second one in Hyrule's world, they were teleported to Wild's Hyrule. 

Sky was actually kind of excited to find one in Wild's Hyrule. He knew he needed more dusk relics, but he was completely fine with not finding those. He didn't like the, ah, rather specific circumstances that came with finding one. 

But finding an amber relic in Wild's Hyrule would be amazing. Sky felt like a researcher, trying to find how much one amber relic could stand, how long it could survive in the open. 

So far, he had found the ones several millennia beyond his time in Hyrule's world, which was the farthest the group had gone, save for Wild's home, but since he knew that Wild was so far ahead of everyone, it would be a huge breakthrough to find an amber relic still recognizable in Wild's Hyrule. 

He shook himself out of his circling thoughts as Time called to start setting up camp. The sky was darkening quickly, and no one wanted to be travelling at night, especially from the stories Wild had told them, of creatures made of bone, the living undead. 

Sky yawned as everyone settled down around the fire, reasonably tired after the long walk. Wind slumped down next to him, staring grumpily at his feet and wiggling them sternly. Sky understood. He and Wind were used to using vehicles to get from place to place. That was simply how they lived, only walking around on small islands and sailing or flying everywhere else. Sky patted the boy's shoulder reassuringly. 

"There's a bit of time before dinner," Wild told Hyrule, crouched beside the cooking pot and batting him and Legend away. "Go do something and stop bothering me." Then he caught a glance of Sky, watching the scene with an expression of amusement clear on his face. 

"Sky," he called. "You wanna help with dinner tonight?"

Sky shook his head, but smiled at the champion. "Sorry, Wild, I was gonna check my bag." He opened his pouch as he spoke and reached his hand inside, trying to find his material sack. Gasping a little when a stray hornet stung his hand angrily, he withdrew his arm and, shaking the hurt hand out, plunged the other one in, this time looking into the bag as well. 

A small "aha!" escaped his lips as he grasped the cloth sack that he kept to hold any random items he found on his travels. Not unlike the adventure pouch, this sack was enchanted to hold anything as well, keeping his materials both safe from the elements and incredibly light. 

Under Wild's and Wind's curious gazes, he opened the sack, accidentally spilling the contents into the dirt. 

"Shoot." He scrambled to pick up all the bits and pieces, grabbing handfuls and tossing them into the sack. Wind bent down quickly to help, for which Sky was immensely grateful. 

"Wow, Sky," the sailor joked, examining a Goddess Plume in the firelight before tossing it into the bag. "I didn't take you for a hoarder of random junk!" 

Sky smiled ruefully as he gathered up bird feathers before they floated away. "Yeah, well, I find a lot of stuff and, well, they could be useful." 

Wild picked up something and examined something in his hand with a contemplative expression. "What's this?" 

Sky craned his neck to see a single amber relic sitting in Wild's palm, gleaming innocently. 

"It's...an amber relic," he said, bemused. "I thought you would've known that. Everyone seems to have them in their Hyrules." 

He looked at Wind, and the sailor shrugged. "I've never heard of them." 

Sky looked at the two other heroes. "I find them everywhere, I was gonna count them tonight. I couldn't remember how many I had." 

Wild stared at the amber, gently tracing the curves in the stone. "I have some amber," he said suddenly. "It doesn't look like this, but it is all over my Hyrule." 

"Really?" Sky perked up. "I have about 100 amber relics, I think. Maybe more." 

Wild shot an excited glance at him. "Really? 100 identical stones?" 

Sky wriggled his shoulders. "Not identical, no. They're all different. Different sizes, hues, all generally the same but also different." He shook his head. "That probably doesn't make any sense. Sorry." 

Wild's eyes were wide. "Are you kidding? I didn't know anyone else liked to collect rocks!" 

"You do too?" 

Wild nodded emphatically. "Yeah!" He shot a glance at the cooking pot, in which a liquid was simmering, and apparently seemed it fine, as he nodded his head and scooched over to Sky, whipping out his Sheikah Slate. Sky looked over the boy's shoulder as he flipped through different screens, finally landing on a single one. 

Sky's eyes widened as Wild pulled out a few chunks of amber from his slate, handing one to the hero. 

"Wow," Sky breathed, examining the stone in the light. "I've never seen amber like this before. How many do you have?" 

Wild shrugged, the amber relic still tight in his hand. "About as much as you do. I've never seen amber that hardened in such a unique way as yours do. And what about the hole in the middle?"

Sky leaned over Wild grabbing one of the relics from the sack still on the ground and holding it against Wild's amber. "I don't think the hole is natural," he explained. "That might've been where a bug was trapped in it, and maybe something carved it out and ate it? But I don't really know." 

"Interesting," Wild murmured. A new light began to gleam in his eyes. "You know who would love to see this?" Sky hummed. "Zel. She could carbon date it and everything!" 

"You can keep that one if you want," Sky suggested. "I have more than I know what to do with." 

Wild looked at him with a beaming smile. "You're serious?" he breathed. Sky nodded. "Well, then," the champion looked at the amber in Sky's hand, "you can keep that one." 

A loud hiss interrupted the two boys from their conversation. Everyone else was staring at them, and Wind had moved over to the cooking pot, occasionally looking into the liquid. 

Now he looked a bit nervous. "Wild, the dinner's smoking. Is that supposed to happen?"

Wild leapt up with a yelp, throwing himself next to the cooking pot and grabbing a soup ladle from somewhere, trying to salvage the food. 

Sky snickered at the scene, knowing full well that Wild would be able to fix it, but at the boy's desperate call for help, he walked over anyway. 

Against all odds, though not unsurprisingly, dinner that night was spectacular.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I thought about making a paradox with the amber relics, such as: he picks one up in, say, Legend's Hyrule, brings it back to his world, and when he dies, they are scattered and land back where he found them, and then he picks them up again, but this is supposed to be fluffy and kinda simple, so...yeah.


	3. Upgrade

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Avalanche. 
> 
> Wild finds out something about Sky.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi. 
> 
> These chapters keep growing, and this one's the longest yet even though it fought me so much. 
> 
> And now I can rest a bit until I decide to start the next chapter. 
> 
> So take these 2000 words out of my hands and have fun.

Wild was...well, not all that surprised when the heroes walked through a canyon and rocks began falling from above. It was a canyon. In a new Hyrule. In between two mountains. A few small rocks were expected. 

Legend swore loudly as a larger bit of rock clocked him on the head, and Wild watched in amusement as Warrior nearly sprinted ahead, covering his hair with his hands and trying to brush all the rock dust out as he ran, Twilight calling out to the man and then chasing after him with the true stamina of a goat herder. 

Four and Hyrule were now helping Legend up, Hyrule apparently deeming that the veteran had, to be precise, "a thick enough skull that it would take all the power of Hylia herself to make even a dent." Hyrule was shoved into the closest mud puddle by the slightly injured hero. 

Wind roared with laughter by his place next to Time as the traveler resurfaced, sputtering. Four simply watched on with mild amusement, eyes a brilliant amethyst. 

Wild looked beside him to see the Chosen Hero looking at the semi-peaceful scene, a sad smile on his face. He bumped his friend's shoulder, receiving a grin in return. 

Wild opened his mouth, but a loud rumbling interrupted him. The cliffs began to tremble from the gathering din, and the nine heroes looked around, tense, trying to find the source of the noise. 

It was Sky who spotted it, pointing up, his eyes wide. 

"Up there!" he yelled. Indeed, boulders were falling off the sides of the mountains, huge stones that looked to be about twice as tall as Wild and-

They were about to be squished. 

"RUN!" Time roared, grabbing Wind's hand and tearing towards Twilight and Warrior, who were standing safely forty yards away, their mouths and eyes wide with shock. 

Legend swore again, much more viciously, and he, Hyrule, and Four grabbed their shields and dashed off in the same direction, the latter being willingly picked up and seamlessly transitioned onto Legend's back without any one of them stopping. 

Wild took out whatever shield he had on as well just before a rock fell on it and slid off to the side. He didn't start running, however, for he and Sky had been at the very back of the group, way more than fifty yards away from the others and therefore, relative safety. No one would be able to make that, especially with his and Sky's relatively limited stamina. 

Sky apparently came to this conclusion as well, taking out his shiny purple shield, holding it over his head, and snagging Wild's sleeve, keeping the two heroes together. They began running in the opposite direction, but a huge boulder fell inches from their feet, making the ground ripple and tossing the two back the way they came, hitting the ground painfully. 

Within seconds, more boulders had fallen in front of them and they had to move once more. Wild's shield took just a few more hits before it shattered, embedding wooden splinters of all sizes into his arm. Someone cursed near him - it couldn't possibly be Sky, Wild simply pretended he didn't hear it - but Sky pulled him under his own shield. A whispered plea fell from the hero's lips, and Wild understood. He braced himself against the shield as well, and the two waited to be buried alive. 

∆∆∆

Rocks shifted and crumbled as Wild sat up, coughing from the rock dust in his lungs. He was in a small cave, perhaps six feet in diameter, with rocks surrounding him on all sides. Not a hint of light could be seen through any crack or crevice above, but when he made to stand up, Wild's head barked painfully against more rocks, making them shift slightly. Unwilling to make it all come crashing down on top of him, Wild sat down and glanced around the cave instead. He could barely see a thing, but by the light of his Sheikah Slate, he noticed a tidbit of dirty white fabric, half buried under rocks beside him. 

He gasped. "Sky!" 

Frantically clearing the rocks from the Chosen Hero's body, Wild managed to get him into a sitting position in his lap. He shook him slightly, and Sky's head lolled limply on Wild's shoulder. 

Before Wild had time to assume the worst, Sky coughed harshly, hacking dryly as his body curled in on itself and he fell off of Wild's lap onto the dusty ground. It subsided quickly and Sky blinked blearily at the Champion. 

"Wild? You all right?" 

Wild nodded, trying to collect himself and ignore the splinters in his left arm. "Are you? What happened? Where are we?" 

Sky sat up, checking himself over for injuries, and apparently having none, he glanced around. 

"I'm fine," he creaked. "It seems we're in a dark air pocket from the avalanche, with no way out." The two chuckled at the statement, both obviously worried, as Wild pulled a fire rod out of his slate, illuminating more of Sky's face in the reddish glow. 

Because of this, he was able to see Sky's eyes widen, and he began to dig through the rubble, pulling out his purple shield. 

Wild let out a small breath as he looked sadly at it. It was dusty and covered in a layer of dirt. Large, dark cracks ran all along it, making it look like it was about to break, as so many of Wild's things looked like before they exploded. 

If it was his own shield, Wild would've been devastated. As it was, he felt a huge pang of loss as he looked at the once-beautiful shield that had survived so much. It was the shield that had survived Sky's first guardian with barely a dent on it, and he was pretty sure that Sky had once said that he had done most of his adventure with it. 

But when he looked back at Sky, the Chosen Hero only looked...annoyed. 

Yup, that was it. Sky frowned at the shield, and banged it lightly against a rock, making one of the cracks spread further. 

"Uh, Sky?" Wild said tentatively. "I, uh, I'm sorry about your shield. I've had a bunch of good ones break on me, myself. And whole it is fun breaking highly damaged ones, we don't really have much right now, and-" 

"Huh?" Sky glanced at him. "Oh, yeah, your shield broke. I hate when that happens. But this one should be fine, unless it broke. Not like this!" he added quickly as Wild was about to point out that indeed, Sky's shield was pretty much broken.

"This shield is special," Sky explained. "I got it upgraded a bunch, and it is really durable. Plus, it'll regenerate by itself, so I don't have to use any potions on it or get it repaired again. If I could just - aha!" The shield began to glow slightly, and Wild watched in amazement as the cracks on the shield slowly knitted up. 

"Woah," he breathed, and Sky shot him a small smile. 

"Next time we're in Skyloft, you're meeting Gondo. He can probably upgrade a bunch of your items." 

"That...would be good," Wild admitted. "I've gotten my clothes upgraded before, but I never really asked the Great Fairies to upgrade my weapons. They come and go so quickly." 

"You know people who upgrade clothing?" When Wild nodded, Sky tugged on his earrings. "I might have to meet them then." 

Wild grinned, then remembered something. "Wait, you break shields too?"

Sky colored, or perhaps it was just the lighting. "I bought them from the bazaar!" he protested. "People in my world had never seen a bokoblin in their lives when I went on my quest, it wasn't my fault!" 

Wild laughed clearly, a few notes of pure enjoyment. "I'm not blaming you, man! I'm just glad I'm not the only one. But now Time and Twi can't go after me when I break my weapons, their predecessor does it too!" 

"Not all weapons," Sky said. "Just shields. I wasn't the one who broke the Master Sword, either." 

Wild shrugged. "Fair enough." 

They were quiet for a moment, before Sky said, "Your shield broke." 

"Mm-hmm." 

"You realize that now, you can't hide those splinters." 

Wild winced. "Yeah. I...I suppose. How did you know I had some?" 

Sky hummed as he grabbed Wild's left arm and the fire rod. "You're not the only one who's broken a wooden shield."

"Ah." A quiet pause, broken only by Wild occasionally wincing as the bits of wood were pulled out of his arm. 

After a while, Sky finally sat back, wiping his brow. "I can't see well, so I missed some, but at least now Hyrule won't be after our heads. Speaking of…" he reached over and tapped Wild's slate. 

"Oh! Good idea." The hero pulled out the slate and connected to Wind. 

"Wind?" he called. "You there? Hello-o. Wind?" He waited a moment. "Are you there, Wind?" 

The screen began to crackle, and Wild scooched over to Sky's side as a scratchy picture began to form, resolving into Wind's anxious face. 

"Wild?" His eyes brightened. "Wild! Sky! They're okay!" 

The slate erupted with cheers and the other seven Links tried to pile into the screen, each trying to see them and suddenly Sky and Wild found themselves reassuring the other heroes that they were okay, they were fine, really, they're only a little bit dusty and half-dead, they've been worse. 

"How do we get you out?" Twilight finally asked, worrying his lip. 

Warrior raised his hand, "Oh! I could use my bombs-" and was promptly shut down unanimously. 

"We could dig you out?" Four suggested. "Or maybe-"

Sky, who had been searching the rocks around them for some kind of opening, raised a hand. "We could go through there." 

He pointed to the other end of the cramped inclosure where a portal had plopped itself down. Sky and Wild exchanged an exasperated look, but came to a silent agreement. 

"We'll have to let you go," Wild said, ignoring their complaints and pocketing the slate, effectively stopping the connection. The two boys crawled toward the portal, laced hands, and nodded at each other, before tumbling into the darkness that snapped shut behind them with a hollow thunk. 

Wild clung tight to Sky's sweaty hand as they twisted through dead space, colliding and then almost being split up. But before Wild had time to hurl, they were unceremoniously dropped onto stone bricks. 

"Gah!" Wild swore as a few splinters in his arm twisted, and Sky moaned next to him, cradling his head. 

"Hol' on," the hero muttered, standing up and shaking his head, then helping Wild to his feet, carefully avoiding the splinters. 

Wild slowly looked around. "Where are we?" 

Sky glanced up, and grinned in excitement. "This is my home! This is Skyloft!" 

"Wow." When Sky had told them about Skyloft, Wild had pictured enormous castles and temples, all made of marble and gold and stretching high up in the clouds. Somehow, the quaint setting of the town was prettier. 

Sky slung one arm around Wild's neck, giving him a one-armed hug. "We made it out," he whispered delightedly. 

Wild grinned at his friend, who had bliss written all over his face.

Then, Sky gasped. "Come on!" 

He grabbed Wild's hand and tugged him through the open streets, grinning broadly. Wild found himself laughing as he tried to keep up with the excited Skyloftian. 

Sky pulled him into a purple tent-like thing and the two ran past the different stalls. Wild caught a glimpse of a girl leaning boredly on a table and a man with a crystal ball before Sky pulled him into a booth with a happy salesman. 

"Hey, Rupin!" Sky said breathlessly. "Do you have another sacred shield?" He patted Wild's chest. "My friend here needs one." 

Rupin laughed. "Right over there, Mister Link, where it always is!" His expression suddenly became stern. "It does cost 500 rupees." 

Sky nodded, and before Wild could protest, he picked up the purple shield and thrust it into Wild's uninjured hand, then dished through his rupee pouch and pulled out a multitude of rupees, counting them carefully and setting a huge pile of green and blue on the counter. 

Wild caught his eye and Sky reddened. "I don't find very many big rupees. Mostly green and blue." 

"I see that," Wild said apprehensively, eyeing the pile Rupin was now carrying into the back room of his shop. "But I really don't need this, I mean-" 

Sky shot him a look that made him realize how idiotic he sounded. "Says the boy who breaks every weapon he touches."

Wild sighed. "Fine. But how sturdy is this shield?" 

"It is pretty fragile," Sky admitted. "But you can get it upgraded!" 

"I must admit, I am curious to see this whole 'upgrading weapons' thing you were talking about," Wild said. "How does that work?" 

"Well, first you need the proper materials," Sky explained. "Sometimes there's amber relics, or tumbleweeds, or bugs, stuff like that." 

"You have bugs?" Wild cried. 

Sky winced. "Anyway…" he grabbed Wild's hand and tugged him over to another stand. 

A man sat there, fiddling with something. When he saw Sky his face brightened. 

"Hey, Link! Whaddya need?"

Sky grinned. "Hey Gondo." He took the shield from Wild's hands. "Do you think you could upgrade this? All the way?" 

"This is for your friend here?" Gondo looked at Wild and Sky nodded. "Alright then. I could do that." 

Sky grinned at Wild's bright red face and winked at Gondo, almost threw some supplies and rupees on the table, and Gondo snatched them up before Wild could protest. 

"This'll take a while, lad," the man warned. "Come back tomorrow." 

Sky nodded, then turned back to Wild. 

"You really don't need to do this for me," he told the Chosen Hero. "Honest. You could've used that money for other things." 

Sky shrugged. "You need something to defend yourself with. I can't think of a better way to spend it." 

Wild stared at his friend for a moment, then threw his arms around him, burying his face in his neck. Sky obliged with enthusiasm. 

"Thank you," the Champion whispered. 

"Anytime."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was having a small crisis trying to decide between Gondo or Great Fairy. 
> 
> Going Gondo today, folks!
> 
> Hyrule's gonna blow his top when he sees the splinters in Wild's arm, but when the boys give him five upgraded potions, he's gonna just forgive them on the spot. (This is not part of the next chapter, I'm just saying that's totally what would happen).
> 
> I just realized that only about a third of this chapter is about the prompt. 
> 
> But what can ya do, ya know?
> 
> I'm super-duper excited for the next chapter!


	4. Broken

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sky shares a tidbit of his adventure.  
> Wild decides to show him something.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Uhhhhhhhhhhhh.  
> I'm looking back at the title and it sounds so super angsty.  
> It's not.

Wild yawned, slumping lazily against the fallen log. The night was coming quickly, and everyone was sleepy and comfortable from the fresh meal Wild had managed to cook. 

Time was sharpening his sword by the firelight, and Wild immediately blurted out, "What weapons did you guys use on your adventures?" 

Everyone stared at him for a moment, and Wild immediately colored, but Legend laughed sharply, beginning to rummage through his bag.

"Well," he began, "I found these once." He pulled out three medallions, spreading them in one hand like they were a hand of cards. "They let me do some pretty cool magic with the Master Sword." He patted the sheath beside him. "If I do say so myself." 

Four grinned. "Well, if we're talking about getting extra magic stuff, I had to reforge my blade with some medallions. It took forever, but I tempered it into an entirely different weapon."

Time joined in the conversation. "I made two different blades on my journeys," he recalled. "I'm using the Biggoron's Sword, it's the most powerful sword in my arsenal." 

Twilight raised an eyebrow. "Better than the Master Sword." 

Time chuckled. "One, the Master Sword isn't in my arsenal anymore. Two, yes. Yes it is. It sadly doesn't have the sealing power, though. The Ganon fight would've been so much quicker." 

One by one, each hero told of different tales of gaining, forging, or earning different weapons, mostly swords, with varying degrees of willingness, but each story was spectacular. 

"What about you, Sky?" Wind suddenly asked. "You got anything?" 

Sky nodded, then shook his head, then nodded again. "You already know I forged the Master Sword," he said haltingly. "I did upgrade a bunch of weapons, too, but none of those really have a story worth telling." 

A chorus of groans met this statement, but Sky's head snapped up. 

"Oh." 

"Oh?" Hyrule asked excitedly. "Oh what?" 

"We-ell…" Sky twiddled his thumbs for a moment, then shook his head. "Never mind. You guys wouldn't think it's impressive." 

"Sure we would!" Warrior clapped the Skyloftian on the back. "Just tell us!" 

Sky sighed dramatically. "Fine. It's...a shield." 

Silence met his words. 

"And?" Four prompted. "How'd you get it? What is it?" 

Sky snorted. "You guys wouldn't believe it, but shields break on me. Easily. So earning this shield...well, it was a pretty big thing.

"It's called the absurdly sturdy shield," he explained. "It's a shield that will never break, no matter how much it's used. To get it, I had to go through a series of trials, reliving the hardest boss fights from my adventure so far. I forget how many I went through, but I couldn't use any pouch items, and I could only use the key items I had had at that point in the adventure. It was pretty hard, but I got an unbreakable shield out of the whole deal, so…" he shrugged. 

Twilight blinked at him. "Shields break on you?" 

Wild grinned as Sky rubbed the back of his neck. "...Yeah."

"What?" Warrior's eyes were round. "Shields break on you?" 

Legend snorted. "You're just as bad as Wild." 

Sky was steadily gaining color in his face with each comment, so Wild decided to save him. 

He waved his hand. "Um, is anyone gonna talk about how he beat the hardest bosses he had gone through with no fairies or red potions and just the items he had gotten and he won?" 

Hyrule began to wave him off, but Time nodded sagely. "That is an accomplishment I cannot attest to," he told his predecessor. "Good job." 

Wind yawned enormously, leaning heavily on Warrior's arm, and Wild felt his own eyelids drooping. Sky was sitting beside him, and Wild felt a sly, sleepy grin flicker across his face. 

He flung himself into Sky's lap dramatically. Sky made a strange squawking sound and Wild grinned up at him. A ripple of laughs spread around the fire and Time said, "We should all get some sleep." 

Wild didn't hear anything else. He was already drifting. 

∆∆∆

Wild and Sky were at the back of the group again in the bright summer sun, enjoying the feeling of the warm wind at their backs. The others were once again bantering in front of them, but it was such a peaceful morning, Wild felt no urge to join them. He liked it much more back here with the gentle Skyloftian. 

"What do you think made volcanoes?" Wild wondered. 

Sky shrugged. "I'm not sure, never really thought about it. I'm not really the best person to answer that question. Four might know more though. Sorry." 

"That's okay." They were silent for a moment, before Wild spotted something a little to the left of where the others had disappeared. "Do you know what shield-surfing is?" 

"What?"

Wild bit his lip, then made up his mind. "Come on." 

He grabbed Sky's wrist and pulled him over to the hill. "You start walking down," he instructed. "You can do it backwards if you want, you'll get a better view."

Wild caught Sky's raised eyebrow, but only smiled to himself as the man began walking. 

When Sky was about halfway down the hill, Wild pulled out his Hylian shield and surveyed the slope. It was a bit rocky, but Wild was pretty confident the shield would hold up. 

Wild jumped onto the shield and began to surf towards Sky, who turned at the sound, caught a glance of Wild's shield, and gaped.

"What the-"

Wild whooped as he skidded past Sky, then glanced down at his shield. 

Cracks spiraled along it, growing with every second over the blue and red metal. 

That wasn't good.

Wild didn't have time to jump off the shield before a loud crack resonated around the plain, and the shield snapped, dozens of little bits of metal shattering and spraying across the hill. Wild himself was tossed violently down the hill with a whispered "ow," finally coming to rest a few yards from Sky. 

Said hero stared dumbly at Wild, who stared innocently back. 

"What?" 

Sky blinked at him. "How did you do that?" 

"Do what?"

"You broke an unbreakable shield." 

"Umm…"

"It took me forever, a day, and part of my sanity to get that shield and no matter how hard I tried, I wasn't able to break it. I thought my days of breaking shields were over. I lost it, but I was okay with that, because I thought I could find it and it would be fine. You have just proved that it survives for millennia. And that you can literally break anything." 

Wild stared at the splinters of metal across the grass, then pulled out his other Hylian shield from his slate. "I have two." 

For a minute, Sky simply stood there, unresponsive, long enough for Wild to get rather worried. 

Then he broke down in laughter. 

Wild rushed to his side as Sky fell to the ground, clutching his stomach and positively howling with laughter. The Chosen Hero's eyes were squeezed tight as he tried to gain control of his mirth. 

"The old bat," he finally gasped, wiping a tear from his eye. "He made more?" Sky burst out with another fit of laughter. Wild kneeled next to him, hands hovering uselessly above his friend's form, confused as to what just happened. He had expected Sky to yell at him, but this was a whole new level of strange. 

"Sorry," Sky eventually said, trying to gain control of his giggles. "I just...that shield….and you have two...and probably more in your world...it's not because of me, that's for sure." He tried to focus on Wild, then shook his head. 

"He must've made 'em as a hobby," he murmured, suddenly thoughtful. "And then no one ever...huh." 

Wild cleared his throat. "Uh, we should probably head back. Cuz the others might be missing us, and…" 

Sky nodded, accepting Wild's help standing up and clapping the teen's shoulder. "Good point. We should probably get going." 

Wild nodded silently and followed Sky through the forest, still trying to understand.

What just happened? 

Wild shook his head at Sky's call and jogged after his friend, giving up on any explanation. 

There was plenty of time for that later.

But Twilight was gonna kill him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am really, really restraining myself from writing another fic that I have floating around in my brain, because that will probably be a big project the would spiral into another fic and I really want to get this ever-growing list of prompts done. I have, like, 30 altogether now, which might be a bit excessive, seeing as I'm on #4, but oh well, I'm writing them all so...  
> Yeah.  
> Hope you enjoyed.  
> Also! If I don't answer your comments, it's because I can't find the words, not because I'm ignoring it (how ironic, a writer that can't find words). But seriously, I appreciate each and every one of you.


	5. Old

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The name says it all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is quite possibly the worst thing I have ever written. 
> 
> Am I sorry? No. 
> 
> You're all stuck with this unedited, quick thing I felt compelled to do. 
> 
> Don't worry, I'll make the next chapter so much better. 
> 
> But this was in my brain and I couldn't write anything else. 
> 
> Read on.

Legend leaned back in his seat by the campfire. "This might sound weird, but...how old are all of you?" 

Wild snorted with laughter, but Time was stoic. 

"I'm not telling you," he said. 

Hyrule raised a hand. "I'm somewhere between sixteen and eighteen, somewhere around there." 

Legend shot him a glance. "Do I want to know?" 

"Hey, not all of us can keep track of the years while we're adventuring," Hyrule defended.

"Fair enough." Legend shrugged, then pointed his fork at Four. "You?" 

"'Bout fifteen," the smithy said shortly. "Depends on how you count." He nudged Wind's side. 

"I'm almost fourteen," the boy proclaimed. 

"And you've done two adventures?" Warrior asked. "No way." 

"It's true!" Wind protested. "How old are you, anyway?" 

"Twenty-three," he said proudly. 

Twilight raised a hand. "I'm roughly nineteen, maybe twenty." 

Everyone looked at Wild.

"What about Sky?" said boy protested. 

Sky shot him a grin that Wild longed to smack off the hero's smug face. He shrugged. "Well, I am everyone's predecessor, and you all know it's rude to ask your elder's age." 

Wild stared at Sky for a moment, then hid his head in hands. "Traitor," he whispered loud enough for the Chosen Hero to hear. Wild heard a dramatic gasp. 

He sighed. "I'm a hundred and sixteen. Roughly. That's all you get to know." 

The camp was silent for a moment, then Wind yelled, "You two are the new old men!" 

Everyone laughed, and Wild shared a glance with Sky. They both stood up, pretending to support each other, and adopted the typical stance of older men - back arched, one hand behind the back, pinched expressions on their faces.

Sky waggled one finger at Wind, and Wild proclaimed, "Don't talk to your elders like that, young whippersnapper!" 

From there, the camp dissolved into chaos and mirth.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. 
> 
> I sorta made up some of their ages, so...
> 
> Time's age shall forever remain anonymous. 
> 
> This was not edited or proofread, it's not 1000 words, so yes. 
> 
> This chapter was just stupid. 
> 
> Also! Before you ask, subtle gremlin Sky will make more appearances. He doesn't get enough chances to be a gremlin.


	6. Fall

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> DISCLAIMER:  
> These boys are trained professionals. Sky is very aware of Wild's paraglider and vice versa. They do this on a regular basis as part of their quote-on-quote "jobs".
> 
> Do NOT jump off tall things. It is DANGEROUS. You will get seriously injured and/or die. 
> 
> Do not do it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One of the comments (all of which I am crazy grateful for) mentioned "nonsense"...
> 
> So, uhhhhh... Yeah. 
> 
> Another very short, unedited chapter full of bad examples for you all. 
> 
> Don't try this at home, kids.

As things usually happened with the Links, it started with a portal. 

The nine heroes landed on a cliff. 

Not exactly a cliff. 

More of a giant stone tower.

"Anyone recognize this?" Time asked once they had recovered. There were a few head shakes and "no"'s that echoed through the group. 

"How are we supposed to get off this hunk of rock?" Warrior yelled. 

"Well, gee, I don't know, maybe we could push you off and see if gravity still works!" Legend roared back. 

As the others bickered, Sky saw Wild glance down off the rock, calculating the distance. He edged toward the boy, just to make sure he didn't jump off without(no, wait, no, Sky was supposed to take care of his successors, not egg them on). 

Wild noticed him and jerked his head at the ground. "How tall would you say this cliff is?" 

"Uh, looks like maybe 400 feet, 500 tops."

"I've jumped off higher."

"Have you now?" Sky raised an eyebrow. A half-baked, impulsive idea suddenly formed in his brain, and completely giving up on any restraint, he turned so his back was to the open air. He crossed his arms and smirked. "Try and catch me then!" 

Sky stepped backward into nothingness.

Wild let out a shout as Sky tumbled through the air for an instant, before going spread-eagle and slowing his fall for an instant. He glanced back up to see a look of excited understanding cross Wild's face, and the boy yelled, "BYE!", presumably to the other heroes, and barrelled off the cliff himself. 

Wild shot straight past him, ragdolling straight to the earth but grinning broadly at Sky, who frowned playfully and straightened his body out, pointing straight down and flying past a shocked Wild. The air whipped past his face playfully and Sky felt the familiar urge to laugh, but he kept his mouth locked tight. He remembered that one day, so long ago, when he had swallowed a bug while diving. 

It was not pleasant. 

Sky saw the ground rise up to meet him, and he waited, and waited, and waited. 

About ten feet from the ground, Sky grabbed his sailcloth with practiced ease and floated smoothly to the ground. A few seconds later, Wild sailed past him on his paraglider, landing in a roll in the grass and laughing joyfully. 

Sky walked up to him, and Wild's eyes landed on him. His face split into a huge grin. "How'd you do that? I have to pull out my paraglider like, 50 feet from the ground!"

Sky shrugged, smirking. "I had a friend who taught me." 

Wild mopped his brow. "Maybe I should meet this friend." 

"SKY!" someone suddenly screamed from far above them as Sky opened his mouth to reply. "WILD!" 

The two heroes exchanged nervous glances as a tirade of threats, curses, and lectures suddenly erupted from the top of the tower. 

"GUYS!" Wild yelled, cupping his hands around his mouth. "THERE'S A LADDER!" He pointed to the side of the tower where there was in fact a metal ladder for easy access. 

"We are so in for it when they get down here," Sky muttered. 

Wild nodded grimly. "Well, it was fun while it lasted." 

Against what any normal person from any other era would have said, Sky had to agree.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I may have gone a little excess on the warnings at the top, but I'm not sorry. 
> 
> Also, if you are here for that one prompt...you know, the obvious one...about, uh, storms? (If you've played both SS and BotW, you should know what I mean I hope)...I am actively avoiding that one. I have too many ideas for it, and all of them are not great. If you have some, I am very open to suggestions, so if you have some and you want to put them in the comments, that would be great.


	7. Duel

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The boys start a duel.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ack it's been like a week, crazy!  
> I lost my mojo and I couldn't find a prompt that I felt like I could do this week, and then I found this. So I'm back, hopefully for good this time.  
>  Anyway, um, hi? I did an emotional oops (poor Sky) and also, I didn't really reread this either. Just trying to get back in my groove.   
> So have this.

Warrior rested his chin on his hand. "Hey guys, who do you think is the best swordsman, eh?" 

Legend snorted. "Twenty rupees says I could beat you." 

"Bet." Warrior stood up, brushing any lingering dirt off his thighs with his hands.

"Guys…" Sky said warningly. He never liked it when the others dueled, because what if they hurt each other? It was already Sky's fault for them being here at all. Getting them to fight each other simply led to more disasters. 

"No, no, we should all do this," Time said with a rare grin. "Warrior and Legend first then?" 

"Ooh!" Wind raised his hand. "I wanna spar Twilight!" 

Time glanced at the hero in question, but Twilight nodded. "Just don't expect me to go easy on you." 

Wild and Hyrule cast sly grins at each other, before pointing in unison and announcing, "I'm fighting him." 

"Okay." Time rubbed his fingertips together. "I'll do Four, and...Sky, what about you?" 

Sky leaned back. "If you need someone to step in, I can, but I'm fine just spectating." 

"If you say so." Time turned to the first pair. "No items or magic, just your swords. No shields, no bows, no boots or rods," he said this primarily to Legend, "and you both have to take off any items so that you have a fair fight." 

Legend shrugged, his bag already on the ground beside Time. He bent down and began unfastening his boots. "Fair enough. Unless Pretty Boy doesn't want the answer to his own question. I'll need a pair of shoes though." 

Warrior snorted as Wild tossed a spare pair of boots at Legend. "Trust me, I think we both know exactly who'll win this." He gave his fire rod, item pouch, and surprisingly, his scarf to Wind, who looked at it in suspicion. 

"Is this actually magical?" he asked. Warrior gave the sailor an ambiguous wink, making Wind hesitantly put it on the log beside him. 

Legend won the match, grinning absurdly at Warrior as the captain slunk over to sit beside Wind. Sky tried to stifle his laugh as Wind handed Warrior his mirror shield and the man nursed a black eye. 

Wind barely won over Twilight, which surprised everyone except for the two actually fighting. 

Twilight had chuckled when he had found himself disarmed after ten straight minutes of dueling. "Not bad, kid." 

"You sure you didn't just give up?" Wind teased. "You're easier to beat than a chuchu!" 

Time won his match against Four. The smithy had regarded his sword at the beginning of the match before shrugging, setting the weapon beside the rest of his items for reasons known only to him, and used one of Wild's crappy swords. Sky wondered if there would've been a different outcome had Four used his own sword, but that was that. 

Wild's and Hyrule's fight was legendary. Even with Sky's sharper eyes, used to picking out other birds and their riders in a sunny sky over long distances, he could barely follow the dance of clashing steel. But near the end, Wild blurred, and Hyrule found himself on the ground with a sword pointing at his neck. 

"Does that count as cheating?" Hyrule had asked. 

"I didn't use any items," Wild had protested. 

Time shrugged. "Sorry, 'Rule. He wins."

Next came Legend against Wind. Another long duel, again with the young pirate as the victor. Warrior had put Legend into a headlock and noogie, the veteran pushing the man off him and clapping Wind on the back. Both boys wiped the sweat off their faces and grinned at each other. 

Everyone was excited to see the oldest hero in their group fight Wild. Sky cheered and yelled along with them as Time gained the upper hand, then Wild, then Time again. Finally, though, Time's sword spun out of his grasp, embedding itself into the grass ten feet away, and Wild pointed his sword at Time, who raised his hands in surrender and turned to the final two contestants. 

"Do you guys want a break, or do you want to do your match now?" 

The two boys exchanged glances, seemingly coming to an agreement, and nodded, positioning themselves across from each other. Time shrugged and sat down next to Sky, who in turn stood up, standing between the two contestants. 

"For the title of winner," he announced, "is Link, Hero of Winds, against Link, Hero of the Wild. You may start...now." He dove out of the way as the two swordsmen began advancing on each other. 

Wind swung downwards with a powerful strike, his blade blurring in the air. Wild rolled to the side, coming up behind the younger hero, but Wind directed his swing into a spin. Wild parried his blade, and suddenly Sky couldn't see much else, save for blue, blond, and silver. 

The fight gradually slowed down, the strikes became ever so slightly slower over the course of what felt like hours. But finally, finally, Wild swept Wind's legs out from under him, disarming him and placing one foot gently on his chest. 

"I win." 

Cheers erupted from the group, and all eight heroes suddenly engulfed Wild in celebration. Sky felt a surge of giddiness at finding the best swordsman in the group. He enveloped himself in the sound of his comrades' joy, so it took him a few moments to realize everything had gone quiet. 

He and Wild were the only ones standing in the circle now, the others having backed up. 

"I want Sky to try," Warrior piped up. 

"Yeah!" Wind yelled. "Avenge me!" 

Sky grinned. "We-ell, I didn't really want to…" 

"Why, Sky?" Hyrule pouted. 

"Yeah," Wild agreed, mirroring the pout. "Why not, Sky? I'll duel you. Or…" he lowered his voice with a mischievous grin. "Are you chicken?" 

Sky bobbed his head for a moment, considering his options and finally giving in. "I didn't want to duel you guys because I wanted to give you a fair shot at winning." 

An "ooooh!" rippled through the camp, but Wild just jerked his head. 

"Come on, then," he told the Chosen Hero. "I'm not afraid of losing." 

Sky retrieved his extra sword and walked back to the circle, flipping the blade casually and leisurely getting into his stance. Wild smirked, entirely confident in his own skills. Sky heard whispers and saw a few rupees exchanged hands. 

The two boys faced each other and clashed their swords together lightly, the way Sky had been taught to do at the beginning of a duel. 

Then they began. 

Sky immediately lost himself in the whir of the blades and the clashing of the steel, performing a dangerous dance that he knew by heart. Over the singing of blood in his veins, he had to make a conscious effort to remind himself that this was Wild he was fighting. 

Wild. 

Oh, Hylia. 

Sky's vision cleared, and he came to his senses. Wild had fallen to the ground, unarmed, and Sky had one foot planted firmly on the boy's chest, his sword pointing at his neck. 

Sky stumbled back, dropping his sword as cheers erupted from the group. "No," he breathed. "No, I didn't-" 

Bodies crushed against him, pinning him in place, despite his struggles to move. 

"Wow, Sky!" Wind chirped. "That was so cool!" 

"Yeah, you beat him like it was nothing!" Hyrule added. "He even tried his weird blurry thing!" 

"Glad I put my money on you," Four said, casting a sideways glance at Legend. 

"Cheater," said hero grumbled, but he handed Four a pouch jingling with rupees nonetheless. 

"Come on, Sky!" 

"How'd you do it?"

"And-" 

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," someone cut in, pulling Sky to his feet. "Everybody, calm down! You're overwhelming him!"

Sky glanced up at his savior and saw Wild gently pull him away, slinging one arm around his shoulders. "We're going for a walk," he announced, leading the Chosen Hero into the woods. 

Instead of feeling relaxed, Sky got more tense the further they walked into the forest. 

"So," Wild said. "You nearly killed me." 

Sky broke down. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I don't know what happened, I can't remember. It's all a blur and suddenly I thought I was fighting a real enemy and then I realized it was you and I nearly hurt you and-" he realized he was crying, and looked away, rubbing his eyes furiously. "I can't hurt any of you. And I nearly did." He sniffed. "Maybe that's why Fi burns my hands. So I don't get carried away." 

"Hey. Hey!" Wild planted himself in front of Sky, placing both hands on the Skyloftian's shoulders. "Stop it. I'm okay. You're okay. We're all okay, and guess what? You're scary good with a sword. If you can beat me like that, you can beat any monster any day of the week. Don't beat yourself up about this, it's a good thing." He sighed quietly. "I know you're everyone's predecessor, and I know you feel some sort of guilt because you came first. I get that. But wasn't - no, wait, I'm not gonna say that, 'cuz I barely know anything about your adventure. That's okay by the way, you're entitled to your secrets. But we don't blame you for the fact that we had to save the world. Someone had to." He held out his arms, silently offering support. "You're our friend, Sky. And you did stop yourself. And that's a good start." 

Sky stared into Wild's bright blue eyes, searching for any deceit and finding none. His eyes widened and he hugged Wild tight, burying his face into the man's shoulder. Wild's arms encircled him, warm protection against the troubles of the world. 

"Thank you, Wild," he whispered. 

"I'm not sure for what exactly," Wild chuckled, "but you're very welcome either way."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, uhhh...  
> That happened.  
> I pretty much gave up on not starting another fic, so I wrote a chapter 1 that I will probably rewrite.   
> But, you know, you can keep an eye out for that if you want.   
> I should join the lu discord server, but I'm having a liiiittle bit of trouble... (Nervous laughter).   
> Love you all!   
> Illeg  
> (Just realized I never introduced myself. So, hi. I'm Illeg, simply because writing "Illegible Handwriting" takes forever. Nice to meet you.)


	8. Cannon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In honor of YOU amazing people, giving more than 100 kudos and almost 1500 hits, this chapter is a multitude of things, including screwy time travel, a cuddle party, and large, exploding projectile weapons.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shoot, it's been more than a week again.  
> But sweet holy tim tams, people.  
> More than 100 kudos on this strange little collection.  
> This is...  
> Wow. Just wow.  
> Thank you. So much.  
> On another note:  
> SCREW THE PROMPTS!  
> AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!  
> What's a prompt? ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯ the first 1284 word of this is a random, stupid mess of fluff the has almost nothing to do with cannons, if anything at all. So...yeah.  
> You guys might like it.

"Oof!"

Sky fell from the portal, landed hard on wobbly legs and immediately crumpled, his ankles screaming from the hard impact. 

"Woah there." A young woman's voice rang through the haze of pain, and the hero looked up, dizzy, from where he clutched his shins. A pretty young lady stood above him, broom forgotten on the ground and her expression politely confused. 

"Hey," Sky said weakly, trying for a smile. "You seen my friends?" 

"The ones travellin' with Link?" The woman nodded "Ayup, they're all inside. They were lookin' fer one of their friends, ya match their description of ya." She helped him up, throwing one of his arms around her shoulders and getting him to stumble down the path from the hill he had fallen to. 

"Thanks," he muttered, trying to keep one foot in front of the other. 

"Don' worry," she answered briskly. "I live at th' stable, our entire lifestyle here is helping travelers. Anythin' broken?" 

Sky shook his head. "Don't think so. Just hurts."

She nodded sagely. "Aye, a fall like that'll do it to ya." They were now at the bottom of the slope, steadily edging towards the giant fabric horse head that Sky knew symbolized the horse stables in Wild's Hyrule. 

"So that's where I am," he murmured, catching his foot on a rock and accidentally jolting forward a bit. The woman gave him a strange look but said nothing. 

Sky looked around at the quaint scene. Travelers and merchants roamed around, small children played in the trees and the dirt, their bare little feet hopping in the grass and dancing between the leaves. He noticed a man that looked like Beedle hawking his wares, and caught a glimpse of a girl gently grooming a horse, and he sighed in contentment at the scene. 

This. This was why he loved to travel through time. These little things made it all the more bearable to face the other heroes, the other Zeldas, the other worlds. He knew he had failed. It was sometimes almost impossible to stand straight and look his friends in the eye. 

But this. 

This was what he was fighting for. Always had been. And if it still happened, even with what he had done…

Then he was fully prepared to do whatever it took to protect them. 

"Sky?" A voice broke through his thoughts and he stumbled slightly, looking around for the source. Wind was standing at the entrance to the inside of the stable, bare feet on the smooth, lacquered wood. His mouth hung open, and his eyes were wide with hope. 

Sky grinned, straightening and trying to stand on his own. It still hurt, but the pain was bearable. "Hey, Wind." 

The boy barrelled into him, catching him off guard and burying his face into the older man's tunic. "You're back!" 

Sky enveloped the sailor in his arms tightly and rested his chin on his fluffy hair. "How have you been?" he asked. 

Wind shrugged within his embrace. "We...we were all really worried about you," he said, muffled against his tunic. "We haven't seen you for days, where were you?" 

"Days?" Sky froze for a moment. "But I was...I went into the portal at pretty much the same time as the rest of you. It was the typical portal thing, I…" he trailed off, then growled under his breath. "Time travel." 

"What?" Wind looked up at him. 

"Time travel," Sky explained. "The ability to go anywhere in time. Whoever or whatever is controlling these portals dropped you off at a slightly different time than me. For you it's been a few days, but for me it's been mere moments." To hide his nervousness, he shot Wind a quick wink. "Hope I didn't miss anything important, did I?" 

Wind relaxed. "Nah, we've mostly been looking around here. We figured you couldn't have gotten far, right? Legend got mad at this one kid for singing a song, but that's pretty much it." 

Sky nodded. "We should probably get the others." He took a step forward and winced, swallowing the pain. Wind noticed. 

"You need to sit down," he told Sky. "Here, lemme help you." 

Sky waved him off. "I'm good. I'll be fine. We should find the others." 

Wind rolled his eyes, but agreed. "They're inside." Taking Sky's hand in his warm, small, calloused one, the two boys walked into the stable. 

Sky stepped inside the threshold, trying to adjust his sharp eyes from the drastic change of lighting. As he blinked the dark spots out of his vision, he heard a host of gasps, shouts, and laughs. 

"Sky?"

"Sky!" 

"You're okay!" 

"Where were you?" 

"What happened?" 

The Chosen Hero was engulfed in young men, hugging him, bouncing around, simply being happy. He laughed in relief, trying to answer all their questions and make sure they were all okay at the same time. 

Finally, he managed to get into a nearby chair, and settled down, exhaling as his weight was taken off his ankles. 

Four sat in front of him. "So, you're okay?" 

Sky nodded. "I'll be fine. I landed a bit weird but that's all. You're all okay?" There was a sea of bobbing head in front of him, and he leaned back in his seat. "Good."

∆∆∆

Wild yawned, rubbing his eyes. Bright summer sun tinted his eyelids red. Someone muttered sleepily as he sat up, and he peeled his eyes open to see an almost disgustingly cute scene before him.

Everyone had been ecstatic when Tasha had helped Sky into the stable. They had been beside themselves for days after they switched, trying to find him, and that night, after shoving a red potion down the Skyloftian's partially unwilling throat, the adrenaline had stopped and everyone was just out of it. Creating what Wild now saw. 

He was in a jumbled pile of unconscious bodies consisting of Wind, Sky, Four, Hyrule, Wolfie, and, surprisingly, Legend. Wind was curled up against Legend's side, one of the older hero's arms thrown around the boy. Four had snuggled up against both Sky and Wild, one of the few times he had ever really engaged in physical contact, and was snoring into Hyrule's hair, his legs kicked up on Sky's chest. Hyrule was using Wild's lap as a pillow, and was currently holding Four's hand, probably because of nightmares in both parties, but adorable nonetheless. Wolfie was being used as a pillow and/or blanket for most of them, draped over Sky's legs and curled under multiple heads. A nest of assorted quilts, blankets, and pillows surrounded and cushioned them, and Wild could pick out multiple that were his, a few that were the others' in the pile, and even a long, blue piece of fabric that resembled Warrior's scarf, but Wild couldn't see it fully. 

The Champion shifted a little, aiming to get up and start breakfast, but a sleepy protest from Sky, Sky of all people, the one who never asked anything of any of them and gave his all to every task, never complaining, the hero who always went the full nine yards to please them, the man who would never let the others do anything extra for him, made Wild pause and curl back up. 

He heard a snicker and glanced around to see Warrior holding his Sheikah Slate, one hand over his mouth to muffle his laughter, but the captain's shoulders still shook as snapped a picture. Time walked up behind the man and, noticing Wild, waved his hand leisurely. A clear sign.

It's all good. Go back to sleep. 

With a deep sigh, Wild sank back into the warmth of his companions, shut his eyes, and drifted away.

∆∆∆

Wild needed to go to Death Mountain. That much was obvious. Wild wanted to make sure the cannons were all in working order. He didn't want them to misfire and hurt people, and both Bludo and Zelda had asked him to do it next time he was around. They had been dropped at Eldin Stable, and he wasn't about to say no, being one of the only two people alive that could work them. Besides, Time wanted to meet Bludo, and Wild was fine with that. He could probably bring them all if he wanted to, as long as they had fireproof stuff of their own. 

During breakfast, he clapped his hands together. "I have to go to Death Mountain," he announced. "If any of you want to go, speak now, because I have to go check up on the cannons." 

Surprisingly, Sky immediately perked up. "Cannons?" He raised one hand. "Count me in...y'know, if you'll have me." 

Twilight shot an uneasy glance at Wild, probably wondering about the responsibility of the Champion, but Time placed a hand on the Ordonian's shoulder. "Don't worry, I'm coming with them. Wild already knows this." Wild nodded. 

"Do either of you have fireproof clothing or items?" he asked. "We're gonna have to get pretty close to Death Mountain, and I only have one set of flame breaker armour." 

"Yup." Time began rifling around in his pack as Sky nodded enthusiastically. He pulled out a red tunic. "I'll go change if we're leaving now." 

"Yeah. I don't want to waste any more time. The cannons need their maintenance and Bludo's back is killing him again, so he can't do it. I'd like to get going as soon as possible." 

Time walked out of the stable to find a suitable place to change, and Wild and Sky began packing their things. 

Twilight walked up to Wild as he stuffed a few spare arrows into his slate, forcing them through the screen. "Don't do anything overly stupid, Cub," the older hero told him, running a hand through his strawlike hair. "I realize that sometimes you have to do stupid things just to get around in your Hyrule, but please. Come back reasonably safe." 

"No promises." Wild grinned at his mentor, but saw the nervousness clear on his face and softened. "Hey." He put one hand on the Ordonian's shoulder. "We'll be fine, okay? Don't worry about us. Just make sure Legend doesn't commit child murder because of that kid singing the song. We'll be back before you know it, it's just typical routine maintenance." 

Twilight sighed heavily, but nodded, folding Wild into a hug. "I hate how I can't go with you," he murmured into Wild's hair. 

Wild patted his back. "Twi, you have to let go now. The others are ready." Indeed, Time and Sky were walking over to them, shouldering their packs and adjusting various items on their persons. 

Twilight started to walk back to the stable, waving at Wild over his shoulder. Wild waved back, knowing his mentor couldn't see him. 

"You ready?" Sky asked. Wild grabbed his slate, got out his flame breaker armour and metal weapons, and nodded. 

"We're ready," Time told him. "Where are we going?" 

Wild gestured to the volcano in the distance, and tried valiantly to keep a straight face. Time snorted. 

"I meant are we going to use the path, nitwit." He cuffed Wild over the head playfully. 

"Ack! Okay, fine, yes, we're going this way!" Wild gestured to the Death Mountain trail and ran to escape Time. He heard a whisper from Time, another squawk not unlike the one he had previously let out, a bouncy laugh, and the three boys raced along the trail. 

∆∆∆

As they reached the edge of the temperature change, Wild eyed Sky with concern. The Skyloftian had assured him that he would be fine, but perhaps he was underestimating the sheer heat of the volcano. Wild himself was sweating a little even within his fireproof layers. 

"Are you sure you'll be fine?" he asked. "I've been here without my armour and it hurts, you'll get set on fire within a few seconds."

Sky nodded. "I understand." 

"No, I'm not sure you do." Wild pulled out a fire elixir. "Here, drink this. You're not wearing any heatproof things." 

Sky pushed the bottle back into his hands. "I don't need it. Seriously." 

Wild frowned. "If you start smoking in a few steps, I'm dragging you back here." 

Sky nodded but didn't stop. "Okay." 

Wild stepped forward and physically felt the change in temperature. His body was suddenly slick with sweat, and he noticed Time's face shining slightly as he pulled at the collar of his red tunic. However, Sky was not even bothered. He tromped on ahead through the rocks, completely oblivious to the heat. 

Wild shook his head and followed. 

The two heroes dropped Time off with Bludo, the hero immediately striking up an animated conversation with the wizened chief, and Wild lead Sky to the Northern Mine, the site of a good few of the cannons.

When they came to the first cannon, Sky was almost speechless. He examined it, walking around as Wild oiled the joints, checked the levers, looked for any melted metal, loaded the barrel, and made sure it turned on its hinges. 

"Hey, uh, Sky?" Wild asked. "I gotta test the canno, do you mind backing up a little?" Sky did so, sitting on a nearby rock and placing his chin on one fist as Wild changed the trajectory away from the Ground who were working at the mine, loaded a stone and a bomb, and detonated. The flaming projectile soared through the air and into the lava Wild had been aiming at. He whooped and pumped his fist in the air, then ran over to the next one, repeating the process. 

On the third one, Sky stepped in, wordlessly going through half the routine as if he already knew it. Wild was worried he would do it wrong and he would have to fix it and waste more time, but the Chosen Hero completed the steps flawlessly, and faster than Wild ever could. When they were set to launch, Sky pulled the lever and Wild detonated the bomb. They finished all the cannons in the Northern Mine by noon. 

Wild took off his helmet and wiped the sweat from his brow with one gloved hand. "You're really good at that," he panted. 

Sky sat down. "I have a friend who made and patented almost the exact same design," he explained. "He taught me how to take care of it. Your designs are a bit different, but they're similar enough that I understand it." 

"We've got a few more to go," Wild said. "There's some near the volcano. I don't know how you can stand the heat, but it'll be worse up there, for obvious reasons. If you want you can stay here with Time." 

Sky tugged at his earrings, a tic Wild had picked up on when he met the man. "Nah, I'm confident I'll be fine." 

Wild raised an eyebrow, but shrugged. "Okay. If you help, we could probably get back to the stable before nighttime." 

Sky nodded in affirmation and stood back up, brushing the stray bits of rock off his pants. "We'd better get going, then." 

They went back to Goron City and told Time where they were going, then set off. They regaled each other with wild, wacky tales from their adventures. Sky spoke about a hand in a toilet and a flooded Faron Woods, both of which Wild was almost certain was false, but then again, he was the one who could do a bullet time bounce off a bokoblin and had been to an island that stole all of his weapons, so perhaps he couldn't judge. 

When they finished with all the rest of the cannons, the sun was beginning to set. Wild yawned and pulled out his slate, unable to see anything else to do save for grabbing Time and going back to the stable, but Sky stopped him. 

"I...kinda hate teleporting," he admitted. "The feeling of it. I never used it in my adventure, but it's just...I can't really do it." 

"Okay." Wild looked at him with understanding. "How do you want to get back?" 

"We-ell…" Sky looked down at the ground and twiddled his thumbs. "I could use this." He gestured to the cannon. "I've been shot out of one before. That was a catapult, but…" he shrugged. "Same difference." 

Wild couldn't believe his ears. He grinned. "I could probably get you to Goron City, but we'd all have to teleport from there." 

Sky shuddered. "Better once than twice in a row. So you're agreeing?" 

Wild nodded emphatically, already prepping the cannon. "Are you kidding? I can't believe someone else is actually as crazy as I am! I've shot people out of a cannon, you've been shot out of a cannon, this is great!" 

Sky grinned. "Thanks." He stepped over to the barrel of the cannon, opening the hatch and taking the boulder out. "So you shoot me, and then teleport to the city?" 

Wild gave a note of affirmation. "That sounds about right." Sky was climbing into the hatch, and Wild gave his best salute. "Chosen." 

Sky smirked and gave a salute of his own. "Champion. Let's do this." 

"Good luck." Wild locked the hatch and changed the trajectory, turning it to aim at the air above Goron City. "Launching in 3...2...1!" He pulled the lever, watching Sky fly through the air with a cry of "Geronimo!" before tapping the shrine on his Sheikah Slate and dissolving into wisps of blue light. Focusing on the feeling, he could see how Sky hated it. 

∆∆∆

He appeared just as Sky pulled out his sailcloth, running before he was even fully formed and leaping off the cliff, sailing down to the streets just as Sky landed. The two grinned at each other and high-fived, then froze as a voice bellowed in front of them, loud and foreboding as an incoming earthquake.

"YOU TWO. WHAT. THE. HELL." 

Wild bit his lip and glanced at Sky, who had come to the same conclusion. 

"It was nice knowing you," they said in unison under their breath.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You guys are going to hate me for this, I can almost guarantee it. But I can't get it out of my head, so if I have to suffer, you have to suffer.  
> Canon cannon Ganon.  
> A canon Ganon that has control over and/or is made of cannons.  
> That is what is plaguing me.  
> And now it is plaguing you.  
> My work here is done.  
> Also! Bonus points for anyone who guesses what the kid who Legend was gonna murder was singing!  
> Love you all and thank you for reading!  
> <3 Illeg
> 
> Edit: back to canon cannon Ganon. Does that mean he's like, muscular? Like, sometimes arm muscles are guns, right? So instead of guns, would he have cannons? And be like, super muscular??   
> Half of me wants someone to draw this and the other half of me wants to forget this idea ever existed.


	9. Parkour pt. 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ModernAUmodernAUmodernAU-  
> This is my first try at modern AU, so please be patient!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh, yes! Modern AU! Let's goooo!  
> School let out early so I finished this chapter for you guys.  
> Sky canonically has prophetic dreams. I have not seen a single fic that even mentions that.  
> Why, writers?  
> I want Sky with prophetic dreams!  
> It's actually canon and everything!  
> The Veteran (vet) is actually a vet here. Specializes in bunnies.  
> There will be another (if not a third) part of this, under the same prompt name, but I wanted to get this out.  
> Updates will be slowing down a bunch b/c of school and stuff, but I will never abandon my bois!

He was running, running, running. Running from something he had no name for. Someone? He wasn't sure. But they (it?) wasn't friendly, and he wasn't about to go down like this. 

He tore through the pitch-blackness around him, leaping over, ducking under, weaving around obstacles that appeared from the darkness mere seconds before he would've smacked into them. 

He had to keep going. He had something that they wanted. That they needed. Wait, what was it?

No time to worry about that now. 

But they wanted it. 

And he was not gonna give it to them. 

Or should he? Was he absolutely certain that they weren't good people, who wanted to help? Was he completely certain that he wasn't doing the exact opposite of what he should be doing? 

A throwing knife materialized behind him, grazing his ear and embedding itself in the wall in front of him up to its hilt. He dashed towards it, jumping onto the handle with one foot and grabbing the edge of the wall, scrambling over the top, and jumped off, landing in a roll. He hopped back up and continued running. 

Yup. He didn't really care what they were gonna do. He was going to keep running. 

Walls popped up to either side of him, creating a corridor. He flew down it, away from the thing (things?) chasing him, turning sharp corners and dashing down long hallways. 

He realized he was in a maze. 

Trapped. 

No way out but to do what it wanted. 

He came to a four-way crossroads, hearing thundering footsteps behind him, and bounced on his toes, before turning left and running down the lane. 

He had to get out. 

He had to keep it safe. 

They couldn't get it. 

Never. 

But he was trapped.

What could he do, he was just a normal college student, what could he do, what could he do, what could he do-

Sky's eyes snapped open as he sat up, trying to control his breathing. His entire body was slicked with cold sweat, and he tossed his blankets off his bare legs, too hot and suddenly much too cold. He shivered, grabbing his bathrobe from beside his bed, and slipped out of his bed, his sweaty feet slipping slightly on the polished hardwood of his apartment. He gasped quietly, hanging onto the bedframe for a moment as he quickly slipped his slippers on. 

Sky froze as a sleepy grunt was heard from the other side of the room. His roommate's figure moved in the dark, tossing itself over for a moment, then settled. Sky let out a sigh of relief, but stopped as Twilight sat up, rubbing his eyes. 

"Sky?" he murmured, reaching for the lamp on his nightstand. Sky wanted to facepalm. He shouldn't have woken Twi up, the man needed his rest. He had gotten home from babysitting someone at ten last night (Sky couldn't remember who at the moment), just like almost every night since Sky had met him. 

The light from the lamp blazed in Sky's vision for a moment, and he blinked away the dark spots to see Twilight staring at him sympathetically, if a little sleepily, noting the panic in his friend's gaze. "What's wrong?" 

Sky sighed. "Sorry for waking you. I'll be fine." 

"No, no you won't." Despite Sky's protestations, Twilight heaved himself out of bed and began walking to the kitchen, gesturing for Sky to join him. "I'm awake now, and Skylar, if you're not happy, I'm gonna help and you know it." 

Sky sighed weakly, admitting defeat, and followed Twilight into the kitchen, flumping into a chair at the table and gratefully accepting the cup of hot coffee from his friend, knowing he wouldn't be able to get Twi to go back to sleep. 

Twilight slid into the table across from him, a cup in his own hands, and sipped it patiently, waiting for Sky to spill. 

He didn't have to wait very long. 

"It's another one of those damned dreams," he confessed, nursing his coffee. "I...I don't know what it means. But it can't happen. Not this time." He explained what he had seen and felt to Twilight, who looked on in thoughtful silence. 

A bit of backstory:  
Skylar had the unfortunate ability to vaguely see the most likely future since he was a teenager. This meant he was perpetually plagued with vivid nightmares, but unlike most bad dreams, he could usually remember, second for second, exactly what happened, resulting in him being a rather nervous young man.

And most of his dreams came to pass. Another difference from real dreams. They were eventually real, though almost none of them were nearly as bad as they first seemed. Almost. He didn't usually get context.

"I don't know what to do," Sky finished. "None of my dreams have ever been this bad." 

Twilight closed his eyes for a moment, the way he always did when he was thinking hard. "Okay," he finally said. "Okay. We can unpack this. There isn't a lot to go off of, save for some feelings and a knife, right?" He opened his eyes and took both of Sky's hands in his, calming him. "First off, you need to breathe." 

Sky took a deep, shuddering breath, and exhaled. "Okay. Okay, I'm okay." 

"Alright." Twi bit his lip and squeezed Sky's hands quickly. "Let's start with the labyrinth. The feeling of being trapped. We can assume that this takes place somewhere in the city. You're not traveling any time soon. Correct?" Sky nodded shakily. "Can you think of any mazes in town? Cuz I can't and I don't want to be wrong." 

Sky thought for a moment. "No, I can't think of any. Other than the Vet's brain." 

Twilight smirked. "So, that was probably a bit of a metaphor. A bit of extra dream warping the vision. But it gave you the feeling of being trapped, right? Of not knowing what to do. So we can go off that, and say you're definitely being chased." 

Sky raised an eyebrow. "I knew that much."

"Yeah, but this just solidifies it! Let's move backwards from there, then. You're doing your typical parkour thing that I cannot and will never know how to do, and you nearly get hit by a knife. Do you remember what the knife looked like?" 

Sky closed his eyes, trying to envision the weapon. "It was...white? Sort of a creamy color, I suppose. And maybe some sort of red design? I never got a clear look at it, but I did get the impression of white and red. I guess it was sort of a crimson. But that's it." He made a face. "Sorry." 

Twilight shrugged. "Hey, it's better than nothing. And we can look that up later, try and find a match. But they, the people or things chasing you, want something. And you don't know what it is. They need it." Twilight frowned, ticking the possibilities off on his fingers. "Information? Some sort of key? A location? A map? Maybe something to contact someone. Maybe something that could hurt them? Maybe all of those things." He shook his blonde hair, placing his head in his hands. "I...I don't know." 

It was a rare occasion when Twilight didn't know something, an event Sky always dreaded. It always meant bad things, and the last time Twilight didn't know about something in Sky's dreams was when they were both 13 years old…

And that was when both of their parents had died. 

Sky shook himself. "It's okay, Twi, really," he told his friend, partly to console himself, then tried to change the subject. "Who were you babysitting, again?" 

Twilight smiled wryly at Sky, but accepted the olive branch. "I wasn't really babysitting last night, I was at the hospital visiting the kids." Twilight was notoriously soft towards anyone, children in particular, so it didn't surprise Sky in the slightest that he was at the hospital, trying to help the sick and injured kids. 

Sky folded his arms, leaning forward. "Mm-hmm. Anyone new there?" 

"There was this one kid," Twilight told him. "He was in a...well, a car crash." Both young men shuddered, remembering the crash that took all four of their parents away from them. 

"Is he gonna be okay?" Sky asked quietly. 

To his great relief, Twilight nodded. "He's got some pretty bad scarring on his left side, but the doctors are optimistic - Roolie especially." 

Sky blinked. "Roolie's working with him? In that case, I seriously doubt he won't recover." Roolie was basically famous in Castle Town, even to trained doctors. His ability to expertly perform a surgery while chatting casually with the patient, therefore putting their mind at ease, was legendary, and he was top of his class by far at med school. 

Twilight shot him a smile. "Yeah, Rool's pretty great. The kid was actually conscious when I visited him, he's almost completely healed already. He's actually about our age, maybe a year or two younger. And he's coming to Castletown Community College tomorrow, to see what it's like." 

"That's great!" Sky said enthusiastically, but the hair on the back of his neck prickled in unease. 

What did his nightmare mean?

Did it have something to do with that kid?

∆∆∆

Sky yawned, the bright sun streaming into his apartment window. Things were happening around him; he could hear panicked movements, but he was tired, and honestly, couldn't people just leave him alone. 

"SKYLAR WARDEN!" someone yelled. "WAKE UP!" 

Sky bolted upright, nearly spilling his now-cold coffee. He had fallen asleep on the table, still in his pajamas. 

Amazing.

Twilight was rushing around, frantically trying to get ready for school while still trying to wake Sky up. 

How nice. 

Sky glanced at the clock. It was almost 8:00. He would be cutting it close. 

Phenomenal. 

"As much as I'm happy that you didn't have a nightmare after we talked," Twilight panted, dropping Sky's lunch beside the boy, "we have to go. Now, dammit!" 

Sky scrambled over to the small bedroom, throwing on a rumpled t-shirt and sweatpants, and stuffed his homework in his bag, downing the remaining contents of the mug and swiping his lunch off the table, before barreling out the door right behind his friend. 

When they got to the bottom of the stairs in their apartment building, Sky sliding down the banister, Twilight unlocked his bike from the rack outside and hopped on, sticking to the sidewalks as Sky opted for the parks, fields, and stairs next to the streets. He hopped up onto a low stone wall, jumping up on a trashcan and leaping over a park bench, using the far edge of the metal seat to propel himself into a nearby tree, and swung through the branches, landing on a thin metal handrail and running along that, easily keeping up with Twilight's frantic pedaling. He ran up the side of a larger wall, grabbing the top edge and using his own energy to kick his legs up over the rock and down to the other side, landing back on the handrail. They weren't very far from the college now, only a few kilometers, and Sky stopped running, instead sliding down the rail next to the stairs, still standing up, and hopped off, skidding to a pause as Twilight jumped from the top of the stairs where he had parked his bike, scrambling back up to his feet, and the two boys started a mad dash for the front doors to the college. 

A boy was coming the opposite direction at high speeds, and he called out to Twilight, who answered with a cheery wave but didn't stop. The door was slowly swinging shut, and Sky was all too aware that if it closed, they would all miss their classes. They would be locked out. 

Twilight was slowly trailing behind, and Sky pushed with all the speed, strength, and stamina he could muster to get to that door. He just barely managed to slip his foot into the doorframe, and pulled it open just enough for the other boy, then Twilight, the Sky himself to slip in. The large door shut with a resounding bang right behind him. 

The boy, who was wearing a dark hoodie two sizes too big (and which looked very comfortable to Sky) had stopped, and was now staring at the college around him, slowly revolving in place. He gazed up at the big glass dome above them, mesmerized, and Sky nearly missed how he pocketed something that looked like an iPad. 

Nearly. 

Before he could ask, however, Twilight grabbed his arm, and whistled once. The boy's head snapped toward him, and he followed the two as they rushed up the stairs on the far side of the courtyard. 

They were so gonna be late.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Time and Malon are Twi's parents in this.  
> Oh.  
> Oh wait.  
> That means they're dead.  
> Sorry 😭
> 
> Random thought:  
> After BOTW 2, Wild will never look at redeads the same way again.  
> No one is talking about this.  
> How is no one talking about this?  
> Ganon's a LITERAL REDEAD with clothes and hair!  
> His body looks like an oot one, but his eyes are all Windwaker.  
> No one is talking about that and I'm gonna just put this here so people will be scared of BOTW 2 now 😊
> 
> Happy reading!  
> <3 Illeg

**Author's Note:**

> Feel free to drop a comment and/or kudo, your support keeps my morale up and keeps me writing!
> 
> (Oops, sorry people who just read this chapter, I forgot to edit this. This chapter was NOT 3000 words, it was a bit over 2000, if I remember right. Just telling you, b/c I'm stupid and I forgot to edit this.   
> Sorry again😅)


End file.
